Waiting!

Watching the two figures, one large and one small, of Xiong Ba and Liu Xiatian gradually disappear into the shadows of the street, everyone turned their eyes away.

"Now that we've accepted the mission, the next question is how to complete it." Wang Ning looked at the black guide dog in the photograph and suddenly wore a troubled expression. "But the problem is, Raccoon City is so big. Finding one dog here is like searching for a needle in a haystack. And this mission has a time limit—we've only got an hour."

After hearing Wang Ning, the others couldn't help frowning as well.

They were young, after all, and it was hard to avoid acting impulsively. They'd boldly declared that they weren't afraid of danger or difficulties, then accepted the mission. But now that it was time to carry it out, they had no idea where to start.

"Do you think... we were too hasty?" Li Shuangmu looked troubled. "We've only got this one photograph. There aren't any other clues. Like Wang Ning said, finding a dog in Raccoon City, with danger everywhere, is like searching for a needle in a haystack. We might all be dead before we even get a chance to see what the dog looks like."

Zeng Fei's face burned with embarrassment. "I... I don't know... Anyway, I'm only responsible for carrying out the plan. You can figure out the rest." He was even more of a shirker, simply washing his hands of the matter. After speaking, he took out a piece of white cloth and carefully polished the sniper rifle in his hands as if it were a precious gem.

Qian Qianqian was getting anxious. She was already starting to regret blindly staying with them and accepting such a dangerous "Hidden Mission." But now... she was so anxious she was nearly in tears, her misty eyes repeatedly glancing toward the direction Xiong Ba had gone.

Yin Kuang, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed, as if the current situation didn't worry him in the slightest. He even seemed confident that he had things under control.

Li Shuangmu suddenly remembered something Xiong Ba had said: "For someone with 7 points of Intelligence, you sure are useless." What did that mean? Was 7 points of Intelligence high? Li Shuangmu didn't know, but he himself had only 5. Clearly, Yin Kuang had him beat by 2 points in Intelligence.

Did higher Intelligence mean someone was smarter? To be honest, Li Shuangmu didn't know. When he'd taken an IQ test, he'd scored an impressive 160, making him a bona fide genius. But here, that IQ of 160 had earned him only 5 points of Intelligence. Did that mean Yin Kuang, with 7 points of Intelligence, had a higher IQ than him?

Li Shuangmu didn't want to admit it. He wasn't unable to tolerate others being better than him, but he absolutely couldn't stand being worse than someone else. His family had raised him from childhood to become a perfect person, and he'd always performed exceptionally well, surpassing his peers in every way. He had always been his family's pride!

And now, he was stumped.

Still, this clearly wasn't the time to dwell on who was smarter. The important thing was figuring out how to complete the mission at hand.

So Li Shuangmu said, "Yin Kuang, you look so confident. Have you already come up with a plan?"

At his words, everyone looked toward Yin Kuang. Sure enough, there wasn't a trace of anxiety or nervousness on his face.

"That's right, Yin Kuang. Hurry up and tell us your plan so we can discuss it together," Wang Ning said excitedly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Yin Kuang smiled. "I wouldn't really call it a plan. I've only got a few ideas. I don't know if they're right."

Wang Ning was a little impatient. "Whether they're right or not, just tell us. We can all put our heads together. That's better than standing here with no idea what to do, isn't it?"

"Fine, I won't keep you in suspense. Now isn't the time to work through every detail." Yin Kuang said, "The mission says 'Save Guide Dog Mary.' Pay attention to the wording: it says 'save,' not 'find'..."

"Is there... a difference?" Wang Ning asked.

That was what everyone else wanted to know, too.

"Of course there's a difference between 'save' and 'find,'" Yin Kuang said. "Do I really need to explain the distinction?"

"No... Fine, I'll listen." Wang Ning realized he couldn't make sense of it, so he shut up.

"Clearly, having the six of us search all of Raccoon City for one dog in an hour is practically impossible, right? Since it's practically impossible, why would the Headmaster give us this mission... Actually, I've always wanted to ask: who exactly is this Headmaster? Why would he give us this mission?"

"That... makes sense," Zeng Fei said.

"Think about it again... The one we have to 'save' is a guide dog. You all know what guide dogs do, right? They help blind people find their way. Obviously, a dog that hasn't undergone rigorous training can't become a guide dog, and guide dogs are generally very intelligent. So, even though we don't know why it got separated from its owner, what would it do once it realized its owner was gone?"

"Gone? Naturally, it would go looking for him," Li Shuangmu murmured. Then he suddenly punched his fist and said, "I get it. That guide dog must be looking for its owner. A dog's nose is very sensitive, and with the guide dog's intelligence, it should be able to follow its owner's scent and find him easily. Maybe it's already on its way here."

"Right! How did I not think of that?" Wang Ning exclaimed.

"Then... do we just wait here for it to come looking for its owner?" Qian Qianqian asked.

"No!" Yin Kuang said. "The mission requires us to 'save' it. That means it's either already in danger or about to be. If it's already in danger, there's nothing we can do. We don't even know where it is. So let's assume it's about to face danger. What should we do?"

Zeng Fei's eyes lit up. "You mean... hide nearby, wait for the guide dog to arrive, and then act when the opportunity presents itself?"

A trace of worry flashed in Yin Kuang's eyes. "In fact, the only thing we can do now is wait. We can only hope everything goes as I've assumed. After all, there's too much chance involved in a mission like this. I think the Headmaster made failure carry no penalty for this very reason. In any case, since there's no penalty for failing, it's best to prepare as thoroughly as possible."

A glint of gold flashed through Li Shuangmu's eyes. He picked up a pebble from the ground and began drawing on the pavement.

He drew a large rectangle, with several smaller ones inside, some lines, and the four directions marked out. Everyone was baffled. Zeng Fei seemed to have caught on to something. "This is..."

Holding the pebble, Li Shuangmu pointed to a spot on the drawing. "This is where we are. This is where Mike's body is. His body is just about at the center of the intersection. There are three roads that lead here: this one, this one, and this one. And this is the tallest building nearby. From the top, you can see all three intersections."

It turned out that Li Shuangmu had drawn a rough map of the surrounding area!

No one had expected this handsome, sunny young man to have quietly memorized the entire area. The others looked at him with shock and admiration.

Li Shuangmu said, "Don't look at me like that. Like Zeng Fei, I've had military training. Knowing your surroundings is a basic skill every soldier must master."

Zeng Fei glanced at Li Shuangmu and thought, You're probably not an ordinary soldier... But he didn't say it aloud. Instead, he said, "In that case, I'll take the high ground."

"Mm. Also, you can't keep your eyes open forever, so Qian Qianqian will team up with you and keep watch." For a sniper, the eyes were more important than life. And with his "Precision Strike" skill, Zeng Fei could at least be considered a competent sniper.

However, Li Shuangmu had also made this arrangement partly to look after the girl.

Qian Qianqian was perceptive. She looked at Li Shuangmu with admiration and felt grateful, but she was also embarrassed. "I..."

"Even if you stayed down here, you wouldn't be able to help much," Li Shuangmu said.

Qian Qianqian lowered her head and gave a soft "Oh."

Yin Kuang asked, "Then what about the three of us?"

Wang Ning added, "Yeah, they've all got assignments. What are we supposed to do?"

"Turn into corpses!!"